Whoa! Fox almost made a Kitty Pryde spinoff movie?!

Once the original X-Men trilogy came to an end with 2006’s uneven Last Stand, the studio planned to keep the franchise alive with a series of spinoff movies telling origin stories and focusing on different members of the cast. Among those in early development in the early 2000s? Kitty Pryde, apparently.

Of course, that plan got derailed after the critical failure that was X-Men Origins: Wolverine, so Fox opted for a semi-reboot and greenlit X-Men: First Class. The flick was a hit and breathed new life into the beaten-down brand.

But had the studio stayed the course with the standalone spinoffs, guess who was apparently next on the list? Kitty Pryde, played by Ellen Page.

In an interview with /Film, Jason Reitman (Juno) revealed he was in talks with 20th Century Fox to direct a Kitty Pryde standalone movie, which would’ve been written by Diablo Cody (Juno, Evil Dead).

Considering the timing here, it makes sense. Page’s popularity was peaking in the mid-to-late 2000s with Juno, and it stands to reason that the studio would want to capitalize by tying her back into the X-Men franchise that put her on the map.

Kitty Pryde has had a few great stories from the comic-book days (most notably Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men run), so there was some decent territory to mine for this one. With Page coming back for Days of Future Past, it’ll be interesting to see how she’ll be used this time around.